LORETA

Loreta left her home,

for she had found a strange home;

the love of a stranger

seemed more fascinating

than the love of those who loved her.

And so, love went on for Loreta.

She gave birth to two children—

two little lives,

whose father was known to God alone.

Then disease came knocking.

AIDS struck Loreta

and her newborn children.

Poverty entered through the same door,

and suffering became her companion.

Disease tormented her.

Hunger tormented her.

Loneliness tormented her.

And betrayal sat beside her

when no one else remained.

Then, somewhere beyond human hearing,

a whisper was heard:

“Loreta… Loreta…”

The prophet asked,

“Who is that, Lord?”

And the Lord described her.

He gave him the place where she lay,

and guided his steps

with the precision of the All-Knowing God.

The prophet went searching for Loreta.

And when he found her,

the description was unbelievably true.

For He is Truth—

and truth can never hide

from the Truth.

God saw what men had refused to see.

He saw her disease.

He saw her poverty.

He saw her betrayal.

He saw her loneliness.

But above all,

He saw her heart.

And from the depths of her brokenness,

Loreta cried out to the One

who had created her.

Her faintest cry

reached His ears.

She cried.

She repented.

And heaven heard.

The God who found her

did not condemn her.

He healed her.

He saved her.

He comforted her.

He fed her.

He gathered the pieces

of the life that had been shattered.

What men had abandoned,

God remembered.

What men had betrayed,

God restored.

What the world had overlooked,

God saw.

And Loreta—

who had lost so much—

received something back

that no man could give her:

her laurel.

Her honor.

Her dignity.

Her hope.

Her victory.

For the eyes of God

had pierced through her suffering

and seen into the deepest chambers

of her heart.

And He heard

even the faintest cry

of a forgotten woman.

Loreta gets her laurel back—

because she was never forgotten

by the One who knew her

all along.

John Mark